A DESPICABLE Merseyside care home nurse and his older, laughing, assistant have been given paltry sentences after degrading an 85-year-old dementia patient, who has since died.

David Hill force fed vulnerable Dorothy Tunstall, and degraded her by flicking food in her face, as well as spinning her around in a hoist – actions which Kathleen Roberts thought amusing.

Human behaviour doesn't sink lower than this, yet Hill has been jailed for just six months, while Roberts had a four month sentence suspended for 18 months and was given a 12- month supervision order.

These are insulting and inadequate punishments for two social misfits.

Not only is the thought of what they did a living nightmare for all those who have entrusted their loved ones to care, this case, as well as too many others in which patients have been grossly mistreated or robbed of their life's savings, shows the inadequacy of effective screening for staff suitability.

Many old people, particularly frail dementia sufferers, are even more vulnerable than the oft-championed victims of child abuse.